


I Hate That You Know Me

by Bidiza



Category: Winx Club
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-03-30 02:19:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19032754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bidiza/pseuds/Bidiza
Summary: Snippets of Musa and Riven throughout the years. A look into the start of their rocky friendship, and how they've both navigated an even rockier relationship. "You know, you can be a real asshole sometimes." Riven gave a dry laugh, "Yeah well, I guess we can both be assholes together then."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been re watching winx club lmao. It was my favorite show as a child and I've been itching to write something that has a little more substance to it than the actual show itself. I'm now an adult, and as a kid I loved Musa and Riven, specifically the dynamic the two of them had together, but it was clearly a very toxic relationship. So I thought I would re write it for my own validation starting from the beginning.
> 
> I'm going to do my best to make sure these characters stay as believable as possible, but I plan to kick it up a notch and put some more violence and adult themes into the mix. Which I think can be a bit difficult with how benign the actual show was. But honestly, if these were real teenagers fighting a magical war things would be a lot more intense.
> 
> For context I've only watched the 4kids version, and only up till season 4. In these one shots I don't plan to go past season 3 probably, and if I do it'll have nothing to do with any of the plots from the other seasons of winx. I frankly don't really like the new transformations, and feel like they really sucked all of the personality out of the girls as the seasons went on.
> 
> This is completely unbeta'd, I'm really just writing these one shots super casually, and I'm only using myself to re-read and check for grammar and spelling so apologies if there are any errors.

Musa woke to a yell and a crash.

The sound of ceramic breaking as it hit the tile of the living room floor was quickly drowned out by Flora shouting as politely as she could at her other roommate Stella. Leave it to Flo to find a way to make scolding someone sound considerate, but if Musa had to guess, Stella had knocked over another one of Flora's plants that were haphazardly scattered all over the counters onto the floor of their shared living space.

"Well excuse me, but I didn't choose to inherit my mother's birthing hips. I don't always have control over where these babies swing Flora!"

Musa heard a snort echo from the other side of her room, and assumed Tecna had also been woken up by the squabble happening outside their door.

"You know, you'd assume those two would be able to get along better seeing as their powers really compliment the other," Tecna, always the analyzer in any situation.

"Yeah, well, one of them loves dirt and the other loves shoes, you do the math."

Tecna laughed lightly and nodded in agreement while she swung her legs over the side of her bed, slipping on her house shoes. Guess it was time to wake up with the rest of the world after all. Musa had hoped to get at least a little more sleep before potions class.

The five of them had been living together for 3 months now, and for the most part it had been great. Better than Musa expected, honestly. They were slowing becoming her best friends. She had been prepared to hate her roommates, knowing that even though princesses with a lot of money and privilege were all great and good, they were not her type of people. She wasn't a princess, or of any type of royalty, and had just been a commoner born with a high amount of magical energy. She assumed her mother's side had had a few fairies scattered throughout it, though, but had never been able to get any solid info about that out of her still grieving father.

So when she started to show signs of great potential, and her wings had painfully come through about a year ago, her dad had decided he was going to send her away to Alfea. Half because she should do something amazing with her power, he had proclaimed to her on the same day he'd also broken the news she'd be going to fairy boarding school. And the other half, Musa knew, was because it hurt her dad immensely to know that her powers were centered around music and sound. A cruel joke for him, an amazing gift to her.

When she had found out about her powers, she all but peed herself. Not only was it amazing to be able to pull a hiphop beat out of thin air, or break someone's eardrums with just the flick of her wrist if she was ever messed with, but she was now even more connected to her mother, and that thought always made her break out into a toothy grin.

Musa rose from her bed slowly, and grabbed some clothes from the floor as she made her way to her shared bathroom with Tecna to change and shower. Today was going to be a long one. On top of potions this morning, she had a presentation in Magical History of the World, and later in her Intro to fighting For Fairies, the freshman were having their first real battle. It would be in a controlled space of course, but it was still a bit intimidating. She at least had all of her roommates in that class, it was the only class they all shared, and she prayed they'd all be put on the same battle team.

Musa couldn't help but want to prove herself. She sometimes felt like the odd one out being just some girl who struck luck and got to be magically gifted. Most of the girls here had been told from birth they would amount to something great, it was in their blood. It was in their bones. Healer or Godmother or Soldier, it didn't matter. They were destined for an abundant life with wealth and power. If Musa didn't play her cards right, she'd just end up playing music at lame bars across Magix for the rest of her life. Alfea was a great opportunity, and she wasn't going to waste it.

At least she wasn't completely alone, Tecna was in the same boat she was. A non royal girl who just happened to be of a higher magical status than others. It's why Tecna was her favorite, they had bonded over that commonality very quickly after first meeting. Flora was also technically not a princess, but she was still part of the higher royal court on her home planet.

Musa could here some of the girls getting ready for their respective classes. Tecna had already left to go study at the library. They both shared the same history class, but Tecna seemed to care a lot more about acing there exam about the attack on Blair by the Trolls than Musa did.

As she stepped out of the shower, she inhaled deeply. The whole bathroom smelled of eucalyptus and lavender, her favorite. She pulled her short hair into her signature pigtails, still wet. Musa could only imagine what Stella would say to the fact that she was letting her hair air dry in this type of hairdo. It's not proper!

Her piercings were next. She had both ears pierced three times, two on the lower lobe and then both her industrials. She had also gotten her nose pierced a month ago, now free of her dads rules and regulations. Stella had almost fainted when she saw it, and had rudely commented on how she thought she looked like she was one hole away from a street hooker.

After that remark her and Stella had really gotten into it, screaming their bloody heads off at one another. Musa would have most likely blown up their dorm if it hadn't been for the other three girls physically holding her back from using her magic at the blonde. Even though she was the smallest out of the group, reaching a whopping five feet when standing vertical, she could really pack a punch if given the opportunity. Stella had squeaked and flown away into her unshared room, slamming and locking the door. Musa had calmed down eventually. Everyone else had seemed to think the piercing looked good on her though.

She quickly pulled up her favorite jeans as she was running a little late, light blue and mom style with just the perfect amount of rips with the studded buckle she always wore still wrung through the belt loops. Her red band T-shirt of choice today had been thrifted, and so had the dark purple converse she was slipping on as she ran out of the dorm, her spell books tucked neatly under her armpit. She might not have had the riches for designer clothes like some of the other girls here, but she still tried to express her own individuality nevertheless.

She closed the door to her dorm and let out a sigh. She knew today was going to be a bit wild, and she was as prepared as she could ever be.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Riven walked down the halls of Red fountain with a quick step. It was late afternoon, and he had just gotten done with his class on Weaponry and Tactics, and he was ready to crash. His mood was mild today, but he knew one wrong comment from a classmate or teacher would set him right off. Nothing was more annoying than a nagging freshman, or know it all professor.

As he opened up the door to his dorm, which was shared by his other three roommates. (Sky would correct him and say, "We've lived together for a year now dude, can't we be elevated to friend status at least?" Riven would just tell him to shove it.) He noticed Brandon was pacing on his phone, talking in a frantic bursts.

"Yeah I know sweetie, Stella li-," Brandon paused and held the phone out so the shrikes of his frantic girlfriend wouldn't leave him deaf.

He put the device back to his ear when he heard the sound falter a bit, "Were coming! We just need a little time. This mission has already been approved by Codatorta, so you girls just need to hold off the beasts as long as possible."

Brandon clicked his phone shut, and turned to Riven.

Riven raised a brow, "The hell was that about? Blondie break a nail or something?"

Brandon crossed his arms, looking perturbed, "Play nice, Riven. Apparently Stella and Bloom and a few other fairies had their intro fighting class today and a contained scheduled battle with some ogers was their assignment. Stella said things have gotten out of hand though, and now they need backup."

"And let me guess, we're the backup?"

"Don't ever let anyone tell you you're not quick, " Brandon teased as he threw Rivens uniform at him. He then grabbed his own with haste, "Now get changed, Timmy and Sky already have the ship heating up."

Riven flopped onto the couch, letting his uniform fall to the ground, "Pass."

Brandon halted his movements, "Riven, there is no 'pass', this is now a sanctioned mission, not just an excuse to go rescue some pretty girls."

Riven groaned. He knew something was gonna find its way to shit on his mood, and this was that.

"Yeah, because even in my free time I wanna go rescue some helpless pixies. What-fucking-ever, this better not take the whole afternoon or i'll be pissed."

Brandon gave him a weary smile and a thumbs up, uniform clad and ready. Riven had half a mind to break that thumb, but knew that would just be cruel. As they walked out of their dorm, Riven made sure to slam the door extra hard just to get across how peeved he was.

"God you're melodramatic."

"One more word and i'll make sure you end up with your insides on the outside."

Brandon put his hands up in defeat, "Okay okay, I concede."

Under his breath, however, Brandon couldn't help but whisper, "You just proved my point further though."

The bruise Brandon would be nursing on his arm was gonna be a doozy, but it had been worth it for the last word.

As they flew to Alfea, Brandon had gotten another call from Stella, shrikes still prominate. Apparently the monsters had backed them into the magical forest, and the girls were slowly running out of winx. They were only freshmen after all, and between all of them they had little to no battle experience. Riven just rolled his eyes.

"Did she give you an exact location? The magical forest is very vast, it covers a lot of Magix." Timmy was the one flying the ship, even though Riven had insisted he should be since they needed to get somewhere quick.

Brandon nodded, "Yeah she sent it to me via text, i'll tap it into the monitor."

The fairies were apparently fifteen miles from the Alfea grounds, and Riven was dumbfounded as to how the hell they had been pushed that far from the school. That was just basic battle strategy, never let your opponent get you into their home turf.

Timmy sighed, "They're far from the school, but we will be there any minute. Let Stella know help is on the way!"

Brandon nodded, "Will do Timmy."

A few minutes passed, and then Sky spotted something on the screen, and paled, "There! I see a bunch of heat signatures. Six fairies and what looks to be four large creatures, bipedal."

"That's for sure them, Stella had told me it was six freshman and some nasty ogres. Let's find a open space for landing, and quick."

As the descended, Riven noticed that the ogres the fairies were fighting were at least twelve feet tall, if not taller, and carrying various malignant weapons. At least they didn't have any long range magic, but that didn't mean they were any less deadly. Those fairies were definitely in over their wings.

As the ship touched the ground, the boys grabbed their weapons and exited off the ships doc. They were a little far from the girls, but that gave them enough time to think of a strategy as they made their way towards them. Four ogres was a lot, but they could handle it. As long as those fairies could get their act together and fight alongside them.

Riven heard Stella yell, "Brandon! Boys! Oh thank God!" and watched as she stayed in her fighting stance, sending sun blasts at the beasts. Even though Riven could see her fighting all of her urges to fly towards her boyfriend and feel him up. Stella may be vapid, but she was still a warrior.

Riven noticed that two out of the six fairies were lying motionless in the clearing, a few feet away from the raging battle. For the schools sake, Riven hoped they were still breathing. That would be one hell of a lawsuit on Alfea's end if either of those pixies were dead. The other four were still putting up a decent fight. The two Riven didn't know were clad in pink and purple, and looked to be just as bruised and bloodied as Stella and Bloom were.

Brandon and Sky had maneuvered two of the four ogres away from their counterparts, a clear tactic to break up the power imbalance. Timmy was a little farther away, sending blasts from his laser gun at one of the other creatures, working with the two unknown fairies, and aiming for the known weak spots.

Riven was about to jump in, sword glowing and adrenaline pumping through his body when he heard a crack like a aircraft breaking the sound barrier echo on his right. The hell? He felt a monstrous gust of wind blow past him, kicking up grass and dirt and also his hero's cape. He saw a flash of red rush past, and if he had been any less of a warrior, the blast would definitely have sent him falling down onto his ass.

That flash of red had been a fairy, and when Riven refocused, he noticed she wasn't planning to stop as she sped forward towards the fight. She was going fast, faster than any fairy he'd ever seen fly before. He didn't even realize pixies could catch speeds like that. She was rivaling some of the most aerodynamic aircrafts that red fountain had to offer.

Riven noted Stella and Bloom shouting a quick, "Musa!" before the girl barreled right into one of the ogres, purple glowing fist connecting to blue flaky skin. A nauseating crack echoed off the trees of the forest, and the beast went soaring into the tree-line, clearing a sizable opening.

Riven couldn't detect if that sound of breaking bone had been that of the ogres face or the red fairies hand, but he smirked nonetheless. Things were getting interesting now.

The fairy, Musa, he presumed, turned to Stella and Bloom, "Hey girls, sorry i'm late! But I got flo's SOS message and echo-located you as quick as I could. We were able to deal with our ogre pretty quickly, but it looks like yall's called in some ugly company."

RIven was nothing if not quick, and he put together that this fairies power must've had something to do with sound. It was clear from the displays he had seen and the comment about echolocation.

Bloom perked, "Were just glad you came when you did. That was great Musa! You saved our butts."

Before Riven could scoff, he noticed the ogre that Timmy and the other two fairies had been keeping occupied was now heading towards the three other girls, and was right in their blind spot. Riven knew he wasn't going to make it to them in time, and he watched feebly as the ogre swung its metal club at the three of them. The tip of it had brushed both Stella and Bloom, sending them skittering across the grass, but with minimal damage. The red fairy however, was hit with the full force, and was sent flying in Riven's general direction.

He braced himself, knowing he could catch her if he stayed in the spot he was in, and planted his feet accordingly to account for her impact. When she hit his chest, he curled both his arms around her and swung her to his side, using the shock of the impact to his advantage to cause as little damage to both him and her as possible.

After a few moments of her just hanging limp in his arms, he heard a strained, wet cough and saw blood splatter onto the grass below where her head hung.

"Fucking..christ that hurt."

Riven could only bet. She squirmed, and he took that as her wanting to be put upright, and he did so with ease. This girl couldn't have weighed more that a hundred pounds, and when she stood fully he took note of the fact that she only came up to about mid chest on him. She swayed, and he put both his hands onto her shoulders to steady her. Riven noted Stella and Bloom were now back to fighting the ogre that had punted their little friend like a baseball.

He looked down at her and took her in. First he noticed the blood covering both her mouth and left hand. Then he noticed her stupid hairdo. Two short pigtails sat high atop her head, with a set of bangs covering her forehead. black strands of hair were going every which way, wild and untamed. A bunch of piercings, and she was of asian decent. And her winx outfit was definitely different, if not unorthodox.

A red leather skirt and tube top, with a light purple sheer long undershirt instead of the usual sparkling spandex. Metal spikes adorned the bottom of the skirt and the choker that was around her neck. She wore a pair of white hightop Nikes, which were incredibly dirty, and fishnets covered her pale her legs. A set of purple headphones was slung around her neck and he could faintly hear some random rap music being played from them. Her wings were light purple, and the only real sparkly thing about her whole getup*.

Riven wasn't going to lie and say he didn't think she was a little cute. What could he say, he liked the punk look, sue him. But girls were a hassle nevertheless. Especially ones that could one punch an ogre six times her size.

She brought a hand up to her face, and smeared away some of the blood that was trickling from her mouth, "Uh, thanks I guess, for catching me I mean."

Riven crossed his arms, defensive as ever, "Yeah, sure, it's my job. But maybe next time pay closer attention to your surroundings. Your gonna get yourself or someone else killed being that absent minded."

Riven hadn't meant to sound so arrogant, but coddling new fairies wasn't on his list of specialist skills.

She glared at him, quickly going from disoriented to down right pissed, "Okay, first of all who even are you? second of all dude, the last thing I need is a cocky son of a-"

Riven heard a, "Look out!" and saw that a bolder was heading their way, thrown by that same ogre that had sent her flying just seconds ago. Even if Riven wanted to stand hear and listen to this pixie throw insults at him, he'd rather live through this fight to see another day. He pushed her off to one side, and used that momentum to send himself flying in the opposite direction. The bolder missed them both, rolling into the forest and leaving both of them disoriented but unscathed.

Riven watched as the red fairy slowly picked herself up from the ground, her wings expanding like a butterflies, "That's it! I'm done playing this stupid fucking game!"

Riven didn't really know what that meant, but he surveyed and she flew back into the fight, rage covering her face along with dried blood.

"Tecna, Flora, i'm gonna use my super sonic to rock the ground, once I do can you capture these three in a deep web vine cage combo?"

Both girls nodded at her, and Riven watched as the girl got onto her knees and raised both of her small fists over her head. They started to glow purple, and the air around them started to vibrate erratically. Riven had definitely been right about her power source, and watched as she brought both her fists down onto the ground. The dirt around the ogres started to shake and break, causing their large bodies to sink down into the earth. The sound waves made the ground unwalkable, but the fairies were able to stay in the air perfectly upright, giving them an advantage.

The specialists, however, were all brought to the ground along with the ogres, but were able to stay above due to not being as large at their opponent.

The enemy had been caught off guard, and were unable to fight on such unstable terrain. The fairies had gained the upper hand. The pink fairy, Flora, (Riven was slowly piecing together names), brought up a hand and blew some sort of spore at the creatures. That seemed to make them become groggy, and fall asleep within seconds. Then both Flora and Tecna combined their magic and formed some sort of cage around the beasts. The fairies had contained them, and once Musa had lifted her powers the specialists were able to stand back up and run to go grab the ogre shackles from the ship.

"Timmy, can you phone into red fountain and tell them we need some manpower and the ogre cages?"

The specialists were now restraining all of the ogres, making sure to make the cuffs as tight as possible in case they decided to wake up from their magic induced slumber.

"Already did! Cordatorta should be here in a few minute with some ships and backup."

Leave it to Timmy to know what Riven was gonna ask before he even thought the question.

Bloom and Flora, seeing that the battle was over had made their way over to their unconscious classmates. They were clearly alive from the way they the two fairies were reacting to the bodies. Riven was sure if they had actually been dead there would have been a few more tears and screams. Flora waved a hand over the both of them and they jumped awake, clearly startled from being abruptly brought back to consciousness.

Stella had made her way to Brandon and was chattering his ear off, but Brandon was clearly okay with it from the light pink that dusted his cheeks and the way he leaned towards her as she talked. Riven would never understand Brandons attraction to the blonde. She was hot, sure, but too half-baked for his taste.

Tecna, concerned about her friend, flew over to Musa. She clearly wanted to check on her, since after she had brought down her powers she had fallen right onto her back, laying in the uneven earth and breathing heavily, not moving.

Tecna quipped, "Are you alright, Musa?"

Riven was close enough to hear the two girls exchange, and noted that Musa replied with a pained grunt, "Uh yeah, I think? My left hand is for sure broken. Also I think I broke a rib, or six, because it hurts like hell to breath." Riven heard her spit up another mouthful of blood, and wasn't that shocked at how unladylike this particular fairy held herself.

Clearly from her fighting style, this girl didn't give half a shit if her whole outfit was covered in blood and dirt by the time she was done with an enemy.

Tecna gasped, "Oh my, um, what would you like me to do? I can call the Nurse? Perhaps the headmistress?"

Musa chuckled, clearly amused by her friends concern, "Nah dude, can you just magick me to the infirmary? They can deal with me from there."

Tecna replied with a quick, "Oh yes of course," clearly forgetting she could do something like that. But before she magicked her away, she inquired, "Do you think that fourth ogre is still out there?"

Musa, even with her broken and pained body, laughed boisterously, "Dude, no way in hell! I know I smashed that bastards face in so bad he's never gonna get back up. Besides, even if he survived the actual skull break, I put a subsonic wave behind the punch, so his brain has literally gone from a solid state to a liquid one. Trust me, I wouldn't worry about him Tec."

Riven leaned his head around the body of the ogre he was currently cuffing and saw that Tecna had paled considerably, clearly not accustomed to that type of violence Musa had just described. With a silent nod of understanding and a shaking hand, Tecna transported Musa to Alfea, and Riven watched as Musa's body was whisked away magically to the infirmary to be put back together.

Codatorta and a few other students had touched down about a minute ago, and all of the ogres were now restrained and caged and ready to be transported back to high security. The other fairies had started the fly back to Alfea, except for Bloom and Stella, who had stayed back to talk to Brandon and Sky. But they too had been shooed away eventually by Codatorta, saying they were distracting the boys from an important teaching moment.

Riven just snickered.

On the fly back to Red Fountain, Riven couldn't help his mind from drifting to that deceivingly brutal fairy. He had never seen a pixie fight like that before, with so much fist and vigor. She had put her whole body into that match, unlike most other fairies who were long range fighters due to their magic. And he knew most of them tried their best to stay as far away as they could from whoever they were fighting, caring a great deal about their outfits and hair.

She did the exact opposite, though, getting as up close as possible. Not to mention that punch, it had shook the whole forest. However, she seemed to not be able to escape the air-headed tendencies of her counterparts, and really needed to pay more attention to her surroundings. Maybe her ribs would still be intact if she had focused in, instead of gossiping with her friends mid-fight.

Riven knew it was a risk of being teased relentlessly to ask about her, but he couldn't help himself, he wanted some information.

He slowly turned to Brandon, "So, who was that one red fairy? The one who punched the ogre?" He knew her name, he had gathered that much in the battle, but did not want Brandon to think he was paying more attention to the pixies then he let the specialists assume of him.

"Ohh, did you think she was cute? Riven I didn't take you for the fairy liking type. Thought they were a little too bubbly for your taste." If he could throw Brandon off this ship, he would.

"Fuck off, asshole. I'm just curious, she had a good left hook."

Brandon turned to fully face him, a contemplative look framed his features, "Her name is Musa, she's one of Stellas roommates. Those other two are as well that you saw, Tecna and Flora, and Bloom, but you knew that already," Brandon paused, thinking of where to go next, "She's from the Harmonic Nebula, and she's just a commoner from what Stella explained. Apparently she's one of the fastest flying fairies to ever go to Alfea," Brandon paused as Riven snorted, a nonverbal 'no shit' released into the air, Riven had pieced that together no problem.

Brandon continued, "Her powers are tied in with music and sound, and she's also apparently brassy as hell from what Stellas told me. I guess they get into it quite a bit, her and Stella, and Stell has dramatically retold the stories of how Musa had almost blown her off their balcony with magic more than once." Brandon chuckled, clearly more amused by the stories than worried for his prissy girlfriend, "She's nice enough though, funny as hell the few times i've been around her outside of battle."

Riven quietly soaked in the information, intrigued. She sounded troublesome if he had to be honest, but he couldn't help but want to see what she was like around people outside of a battle.

"Oh! She can also play like, ten different instruments too which is pretty cool."

Riven hummed, but didn't say anything further. He really didn't want to give Brandon or the rest of the guys any ideas. He was barely going to live down just asking about her, so he definitely didn't want them to assume he had a thing for her. Which he didn't, but he did find her compelling. And he was a knowledge seeker, now knowing she was a roommate of Stella's, which meant that he'd be seeing more of her with Brandon being as whipped as he was and Sky playing all nice with that redhead.

Riven sighed, this was going to be a long year.


	2. Realizing Civil Behavior is Achievable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay first thank you all for the support! Your comments made my whole day! I really expected to just kinda post these into the void and not really get a response because this fandom is a little dead. Secondly, I really plan to slow burn the hell out of Musa and Riven, and build them from the ground up. So it's gonna be awhile before we get to smoochy smoochy romance gush. 
> 
> Also re writing Riven so he’s not a total asshole is hard. And making believable magical teenagers is even harder.
> 
> Again this is unbeta’d, so if there are any grammatical or spelling mistakes it's my bad.

Stella had all but bullied the girls into having an impromptu sleepover. 

First semester finals had been going on, and Stella had somehow convinced them all to take a much needed break, even with all the homework they still needed to complete. 

She had first suggested they go shopping, saying she needed to get a few more basics for the upcoming cold weather, but it was Flora who has sat her down politely and explained they all didn't have a endless pit for a bank account. Sometimes Stella forgot they weren’t all drowning in money and riches. So they had all collectively agreed on a sleepover instead. 

It was late in the day, and all the girls had just gotten done with classes. It was a beautiful fall evening, and as the girls all brought their respective blankets and pillows to make a communal nest in the living room, Flora opened the doors to their shared balcony to let some of the cool air trickle in while they all relaxed. 

Some pizzas had been ordered, thanks to Stella and her pit of a bank account, and they all had decided to do a spa night. Musa wasn't the most keen on doing her face up and putting that expensive goop Stella called a hair mask into her pigtails, but she didn't mind getting her nails done. Besides, she needed a fresh coat of black, seeing as her last paint job was almost all chipped off. 

“Come on Musa, can’t I paint them some other color, all you ever wear is black nail polish! It's so drab.” 

All the girls were snuggled into the now made blanket fort, and the pizza had been dug into thoroughly. It had been a while since Musa had consumed real people food, as it seemed this school believed its student body was made up of diet crazed rabbits, not real growing teenagers. 

Stella was currently trying to sell her on a coral pink for her short, anxiety bitten nails, and Musa was highly amused. 

“Ohhh I could also spell your nails longer too! Give you the whole nine yards. I mean, look at these cuticles, they are atrocious Musa, didn't your mom ever teach you proper nail etiquette.”

The room froze, and Musa could've sworn the actual temperature of the air dropped at least ten degrees. Musa tried to calm herself, tried to remind herself that Stella didn't know about her mom being dead. She had only ever told Tecna and Flora one night when they had all stayed up super late and got on the topic of family. It had been hard for her to talk about, but it had been something she had wished to discuss with someone, and that had been the perfect opportunity, with people she trusted. 

She wanted to open up to these girls, to form actual real world connections. And she knew the only way to do that was to talk about her deeper secrets and fears. 

“My mom died when I was five, Stella. So no, she never taught me ‘proper nail etiquette’.” 

Stella didn't even falter, “Well someone should have then! Because these nails need some serious TLC.” 

Leave it to Stella to pick the worst moment to forget the meaning of empathy. Musa shot up in a fit of rage, clearly holding herself back from snapping at the blonde. Her mom was a touchy subject, and she knew that whatever response Stella would’ve thrown her way would have set her off regardless. 

She had been working on her anger management, and knew that threatening Stella would only make things worse for their growing friendship. They had been doing so well recently, too. No bickering, no backhanded comments thrown at one another. Both of them just the other day had bonded over the fact that a mutually loved band was coming to Magix soon to play a concert, and they both agreed to go together. Musa had been thrilled, and she wasn't going to ruin their slow growing progress over something like this. 

She quickly shifted into her Winx form, and flew out of the open double doors of the balcony. 

She heard Flora yell a frantic, ‘Musa wait!” But she didn’t turn around. She had to let off a little steam before coming back to confront Stella. 

Flying always made her feel better, it was addictingly therapeutic. The wind through her hair and the ache in her wings made her forget the problems of whatever was going on that day, and she craved that feeling right now to sooth her heartache. Tears condensed on the brim of her eyes, but the wind was hitting her face so fast they dried before they could spill onto her skin. 

Musa had been the second fastest fairy on Alfeas records, apparently. Only surpassed by the fairy of wind, Bella, for obvious reasons. She had been elated to receive such praise from her teachers and peers when they had tested the girls velocity the first week in Fairy Powers 101. Palladium had been whirled around like a cyclone when she had whizzed past him, apparently his little machine which calculated miles per hour had read over 200. Fairies typically only reached speeds between the sixty to ninety range, and anything else was a complete anomaly. 

And that wasn't even her fastest speed, as she could accelerate herself quick enough with just a flick of her magick to break the sound barrier. It was ill advised though, as it did great damage to her body and wings just from the sheer force of gravity pulling at her while she flew. 

Her speed was one of her best assets in terms of battle, and it made her an integral part of the winx team. She felt useful because of that, and there was a small, dark part in the back of her mind that whispered she wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for her powers. Validation was a tricky bastard. It gave you an addicting high that made you feel like you were floating, but a lack of it could bring you down from the clouds and make you feel insignificant. And the last thing Musa wanted was to be was dead weight that needed to be carried by her other teammates. 

She was flying towards her favorite cliff that was near Red Fountain. She had found it one night similarly when the girls had been getting on her nerves and she had needed to calm herself down. It faced west, so it was the perfect spot to watch the sun set and the day turn into night. And she was confident enough that no one would be around, as the cliff was in a decently remote area of the magic forest. 

She set herself down lightly onto the cold earth, and pulled her legs up into her chest, wrapping her arms around herself in a protective display. She wanted to shield herself from the worlds cruelties for a little, and just have a good cry.

The feeling of otherness had been slowly fading as her days at Alfea turned to months. She was becoming stronger with every day of practice, and it was exhilarating, but she still had those dark thoughts of being not enough. She was loud and coercive and a little savage, which were all traits people didn't really desire in a fairy. More than once Griselda had to reprimand her for cussing out a fellow student, or eating with her mouth open, or saying a crude joke at an inappropriate time. She didn't have a filter, and it worried her that she was going to freak people out and push them away with her sometimes less than manageable attitude. 

Musa grabbed her headphones from around her neck and placed them onto her ears. She needed some music to smother her insecurities. The sun had slowly made its way behind the trees of the forest, and was now shining through the leaves, dusting everything in a soft golden light. An earth song Bloom had shown her was blasting through her speakers, and she hummed along with it. If there was one things the people from earth could do right, it was create good music. 

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Riven had decided to go for a spontaneous night drive. There hadn't been a particular reason, he had just been a little too restless in his room for his own liking. He hated just laying in his dorm bed with nothing to do, it made him feel like he was wasting away. And besides, it had been a while since he had taken his levabike out just to go for a casual ride. 

The school allowed the boys to drive their leva bikes whenever they pleased. They all had to buy one with their own money, so it didn't seem fair for the school to regulate when they could and couldn't take them out. Riven would've been pissed it they had, sometimes the only thing between him and putting his fist through a wall was a long bike ride away from all the testosterone that hung in the air at Red Fountain. 

The only regulation Riven had to abide by was the curfew the school implemented on the students, which was midnight, and he wasn't planning to stay out past that. He just needed a quick ride to wake himself up, get the blood pumping. Maybe he'd go work out when he got back. 

It was brisk outside, and Riven had decided to take a different path than normal. He was getting a little tired of his old route, and knew there were hundreds of others created by former students that lead to some interesting places in the magical forest. 

As he veered his bike left into a winding path that road along one of the many cliffs in the woods, he realized this might’ve not been the best choice of action. The path was small, and incredibly bumpy. Not an ideal condition when trying to take a soothing leva ride. 

He was about to turn around when he heard what sounded like singing. It was faint, and he couldn't quite make out any of the words of the song, but it was definitely a female voice. Riven contemplated still just turning back around. It wasn't like anyone was screaming in pain and he needed to shift into hero mode. And the last thing he wanted to have was some awkward encounter with a stranger. He wasn't in the mood to deal with people tonight, (he could just hear Brandon correcting him and saying, “You're never in the mood to deal with people, Riven”). 

His body was still driving his bike towards the voice however, and he couldn't really stop himself. It might've been for the fact that his curiosity was more powerful than his rationality. Or perhaps it was because the singing voice, now more distinct because Riven was slowly getting closer, was, for lack of a better term, alluring. 

The voice sounded like chimes being blown in the wind, creating a beautiful symphony of sound. There was a rasp behind it though, and it make for a very unique combination of hard and soft. 

It took Riven several more minutes of riding his bike down the path to find the girl, but as he came up upon the source of the singing, he wanted to laugh at the predictability. He should've known, honestly, fate had a way of being cruel to him. He could spot those stupid pigtails and oval shaped wings anywhere. 

After the Ogre incident, he had seen her two more times. Once, just in passing when he and the other boys had been summoned by Faragonda to get their side of the fight for Alfeas records. She had passed him in the hall with Bloom at her side, probably going to some class, and met his eyes for a brief moment with slight shock. Riven deduced she probably had not expected to see him walking the halls of her school so nonchalantly. 

After the initial confusion, she proceed to shoot up a peace sign at him as Bloom gave a polite wave at the rest of the boys, clearly more excited to see Sky than anything else. He had felt his heart seize a little when he saw her, and wanted to set himself on fire for his body's betrayal. 

He had avoided her greeting, of course, not wanting to give her any reason to stop and talk to him. And as he passed her, he got a breath of what smelled like lavender, and wanted to throw himself into oncoming traffic. The last thing he needed was for his hormones to get in the way of his focus. School and training were the two most important things to him right now, not forming some lame crush on an Alfea pixie. 

When she noticed him ignoring her, she scoffed and turned the peace sign into a middle finger, clearly finding his attitude less than acceptable. Yeah, no, he really didn't need to form a crush right now, especially on this specific girl. She was like a violent bomb wrapped in a pretty package of nice legs and a charming button nose. 

The second time was in black mud swamp, when him and the other specialists had lost that Troll. It had been embarrassing, that's for sure. The boys had ended up being punished with house arrest for a week, and Riven had almost gone insane being kept in Red Fountain for that long. He had also found it very ironic that the winx girls would be having their outdoor field training at the exact time they were searching for the runaway beast. 

They had been somewhat of a help with that, he’d admit that now. But that didn't mean he was gonna thank them for doing the bare minimum. Bloom and Flora apparently spoke plant fluently, and were able to deduce that some witches had magicked the troll out of the swamp. Musa had mostly kept company with Timmy and Tecna, talking their ears off and cracking joke after joke. 

He noticed that she ignored him for most of the mission, only sending him slight glances every now and again. He hadn't been shocked when she didn't acknowledge him, but it had hurt his ego a bit. And Brandon had been right about her being funny, as he had to catch himself multiple times from laughing out loud at at the jokes he overheard her say to Tecna and Timmy. 

Now here she was, hunched into herself singing some sad song he had never heard before, alone in the woods. Riven barely knew how to handle a girls emotions when they were relatively stable, so he felt especially out of place when faced with a sad fairy. He knew he still had time to turn around, since she hadn’t noticed him, probably from the fact that her headphones were on full blast.

He scoffed inwardly, that wasn't the best way to keep yourself safe when your back was facing the entire forest of Magix. An enemy could’ve snuck up on her with no problem. 

Riven hopped from one foot to the other, shifting the weight of his bike, contemplating his next move. 

He finally decided to at least just check on her, to see if she was hurt physically. He was a hero after all, and this was just him practicing what was preached at him daily. He placed his levabike onto a nearby tree, and walked up to the singing girl, being very cautious to not startle her. If it had been any other fairy he’d have been less vigilant, but he knew she could pack a serious punch. And he'd rather keep his head connected to the rest of his body if given the choice. 

He decided that slowly lifting her headphones off her head would be the best approach. And he deliberately ignored how soft her hair felt, or the fact that he could smell that light lavender scent once again wafting in the air, making him a little dizzy.

Focus was key for a specialist after all. 

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Musa almost jumped out of her own skin when she felt the pull of her headphones. The sensation of them sliding off her head accompanied by her music growing more and more faint was a clear indication someone had come to mess with her peace, disturbing her quiet jam session. Fear rushed through her along with anger, and her adrenaline started to pump. 

She moved quickly, bringing a fist up and filling it with magick. Whoever decided to mess with her was going to seriously regret it. As she moved to face her attacker, ready to throw her punch, she quickly noticed it wasn't a stranger at all, and lowered her arm. 

“Riven? Dude what the hell, I almost broke your nose.” 

She heard him give a light snort, and deflated. She observed that he wasn't in his usual specialist uniform, and was instead in civilian style clothing. A pair of maroon colored jeans and a white top that had a slight crop too it, the sleeves rolled to reveal his toned arms. 

She really hadn't pegged him for the crop top type, but he looked good. Like an actual teenager instead of a soldier in training. 

She put out a hand, making a grabby motion at his general direction, “Can I have my headphones back, please? I was in the middle of something.” She didn't know why he was out here, or why he had come to disturb her sulk session, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with his shitty attitude. 

He threw the headphones at her lightly, and she caught them with ease, placing them back around her neck in a swift motion. He leaned against a nearby tree, looking her up and down once before asking, “So what are you doing our hear? Doesn’t Alfea have a super strict curfew for you pixies?”

Musas blood started to boil. She didn't know why this particular specialist got her going so quickly, but he made her want to skin him alive. She was already overly sensitive because of Stella, so of course the universe had to put Riven and her in the exact same deserted forest while she was on the verge of a breakdown.

“It's only four past seven, and our curfew is ten o'clock, so I think I'm good.” 

Musa watched as he looked her up and down once more, and quirked an eyebrow at him, “Dude, stop checking me out, do I have like bugs crawling all over me or something? Seriously, what's your damage?” 

A blush lightly danced across his high cheekbones, and his face twisted to look like he’d just sucked on a sour lemon, “You wish I was checking you out, Pixie. I was just making sure you didn't have any external wounds. It's my job to make sure people stay safe you know.” 

She gave him a harsh laugh, and turned to sit back on the cliff, “Yeah, I’m fine Riven. You can go back to patrolling the forest or whatever now, I’m going to go back to my music.”

As Musa started to sit back down, she felt a sharp pain pulse through her left side. She grunted, and both her hands shot to the spot of the ache. She quickly shifted so she’d land on her knees rather than her butt, wanting to shift the force from her torso to her legs. 

She heard Riven push himself off the tree he was using as a resting spot, and could feel him walking closer to her. She put out a hand to stop him, to stubborn to take any help, “It’s fine, I’m fine, it's just residual pain from that Ogre fight. I’m not completely healed yet is all.” 

Lowering herself slowly into a more comfortable seating position, she sent a wave of healing magick through her side. She wasn't that gifted with healing spells, but she knew a few pain managing ones for these exact moments. She was aware that she was reckless with her own body, so having a few up her sleeve was beneficial when she got herself injured. 

Riven crouched down next to her, “Are you sure? I thought fairies were suppose to heal faster than the average person.” 

She nodded, “Yeah, but I’d done some pretty nasty damage to myself I guess. The nurse said I punctured a lung on top of shattering almost my entire left hand and breaking six ribs,” Musa let our a small self deprecated laugh, clearly amused with herself for being so reckless, “She put my back together fine, but told me I’d be feeling some phantom pains for up to a month. It’s normal I guess. Hurts like a bitch though.” 

Riven was now seated to her right, clearly not wanting to stay in a crouching position forever while talking to her, “Like I said back in the forest, if you would have not been gossiping with the other Pixies while you were mid-fight, you might’ve avoided half those injuries.”

Musa wanted to slam her head into a tree. She had never met a boy more infuriating than this one, and she had only interacted with him a total of three times. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and swiveled her head so they were face to face, “Dude okay, I get it. I fucked up. I know I can get distracted easily and I had been on a little bit of a high from that punch.” 

She took another breath, reminding herself violence was not always the answer, “Trust me, Griselda has grilled me over and over for how distracted I can get in battle. But i'm trying to learn to be better, so cut me some slack. I know it might not be me next time, and I think everyday about the fact that a mistake I make could potentially kill someone.” 

A tear fell onto her cheek, and she wanted to scream. She was not going to cry in front of this jerk, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let something he brought up make her cry either. 

She quickly swiped at her face with her hand, discarding the tear and puffing her chest out. Trying to make herself look tougher than her five foot frame usually let on, “Ignore that, those are just formality tears. My eyes sometimes have to make sure the tear ducts still work, its scheduled body maintenance, you know how it goes.” 

Musa didn't know if it was the ridiculous act of trying to look tough in front of him, or her stupid comment, but Riven broke out into a smile, and actually let our what sounded like a real human laugh. 

That was what did it for Musa, and she hated herself for falling so fast. She had always thought he was cute from the beginning, but had been seriously turned off by his sour personality and cocky demeanor. But that smile made her want to burst into flames, and to be the one who made it appear on his face was just the icing on top of the magenta colored cake. 

“You know, you never answered my question as to why you were out here.” 

“Oh uh,” she couldn't help but notice how close he was, and also that his smile was still lingering. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire, “me and Stella kinda got into it, is all. Nothing dramatic, just roommate stuff.” 

He hummed, “Not surprised, that girl is...a lot.” She could tell he was choosing his words wisely, tiptoeing around what he really wanted to say. 

“You can just call her a bitch dude, its fine. I'm not gonna go all ‘thats my friend’ on you, it’s chill.” 

“Yeah, no, she can be a total bitch sometimes.”

Musa gave a light laugh, and curled back into herself a bit, ignoring the still present dull pain pulsing through her side. She felt like she wanted to cry all over, but did not have the energy. She was just so tired. Tired of the fighting, both the actual physical battles and also the verbal ones with her friends. And she was also tired of feeling like the odd one out all the time too. 

She sighed, and threw her hands in the air, “I just don't get it! I try to be her friend and we can get along so well for days, and then she says one thing to me and I want to burn all of her bras and dump out all of her expensive makeup in the toilet while shes not looking. And then I feel guilty for wanting to do those awful things, and then I feel like a shitty friend, it sucks.” 

Riven stayed quiet for a while, and she honestly hadn't expected an actual response from him. She had pieced together from their few interactions that he wasn't the best when it came to dealing with human emotions, both his own and certainly not with other peoples.

“I mean yeah, I feel the same way sometimes. Timmy sends me over the edge with just his stupid tinkering noises. You’d think he could work on his shit at a more decent hour. And don't even get me started on Brandon. He tries to get me to open up and I just want to ring his neck.” 

“Oh god please don't do that. If you do I’ll have both a pissed and sad Stella on my hands, and I’d rather eat my own foot before dealing with that.” 

They both laughed, and Musa admitted that she felt a little better than before. She had never expected Riven of all people to make her mood brighten, but the worlds magick worked in strange ways. 

They stayed seated on the cliff a little longer, soaked in a comfortable silence, but then Riven slowly sat up from his spot, stretching as he did so. He offered her a hand up, and she took it, teasing him about how gentlemanly that gester was. It had made him swiftly remove his had from hers, and that made her laugh even harder. 

“Oh also, why did you stay in your winx form this whole time? doesn't that take a lot of power to keep up?”

Now that they were standing, Musa had to strain her neck to even look at his face. She wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively, “Well, me and the girls had decided on a sleepover to cool down from finals, so the only thing i've got on under this right now is a tiny little top and my underwear. So unless you want to see me freeze to death while almost naked I gotta keep this getup going.” 

The slight self induced embarrassment had been worth it to see Riven blush and roll his eyes like he was incredibly annoyed rather than flustered.

“Well, I better get flying back to school. Nice to actually have a civil interaction with you Riven, we should try this more often.” 

And with that, Musa ascended, wings fluttering rapidly. A huge smile broke onto her face when she heard Riven respond with a passive, “Yeah, whatever,” and she started her fly back to Alfea, giddy and feeling a million times lighter than she had just a few hours ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I keep using Stella as a bit of a scapegoat, but her and Musa really got into it season 1! Shes really the perfect character to keep the plot moving honestly lol but I do plan to flesh her out, and she really is a wonderful character!


	3. The Dragon Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly I want to address Stella and say that I really am planning to flesh her out (along w the other characters), I know I made her a little harsh last chapter when dealing w/ Musa, but she did say some pretty wild stuff first season, and not everyone is agreeable w/ everyone.
> 
> Second of all I plan to move around some plot points in the show, and also I wont be having any of the Brandon is Sky and Sky is Brandon stuff directly in this fic, only referenced. Like, in this fic they've moved past that, and the girls have already dealt with it in the beginning of the school year.
> 
> Again Unbeta'd, and thanks for reading!

The next few days came and went like a whirlwind.

When Musa had gotten back to the dorm around half past eight feeling both emotionally lighter and in a better headspace mentally, she had decided to go to Stella's room to hash out whatever had gone down between the two earlier that night.

Stella had opened the door, looking tired and a little shocked to see Musa standing in her doorway still in her winx from.

"Can we talk?"

Two hours and a lot of tears later, the girls had come to an understanding. Stella had expressed to Musa that she was just as new to this friend thing as Musa was, and that she had a bad habit of using humor to deflect when she felt she had offended someone, and could be insensitive without realizing. She had also communicated to Musa that she felt isolated by the music fairy sometimes, and that Musa had deemed her too difficult to be friends with before giving her an actual chance to prove herself.

Musa had felt a pang of animosity serge threw her, but understood that she was a part of the problem, not just Stella. The two girls might've have been from different backgrounds, but their want to be accepted was the same.

After that, things settled a bit. Finals were still going on, and Musa had been in a better mood. Finally feeling like she was making some true progress with both her friends and with herself.

That was, until witches decided to declare social warfare on the fairies.

When Stella had been kidnapped and her ring stolen, Musa could've probably leveled a whole city with the amount of rage induced magick that had flown through her when they found the blonde floating and unconscious in that fake cafe, slowly being crushed.

At times, Musa thought that it was unfair Bloom had been named the unofficial leader of the Winx Club. A selfish part of her wondered why she hadn't been chosen to lead. What made Bloom so special? The girl had only found out she was a fairy barley three months ago.

But it was seeing Bloom make the tough decisions, like giving Stella's ring to Icy and keeping a cool head the entire time that made Musa realize Bloom had great potential. It had also shown her that if she had been in charge, she would have just resorted to unabashed violence, like she always did. There was a time and a place to break a few bones, but needing to reason with the enemy to give you the unconscious body of your friend back was not one of them.

And then there was the whole ordeal with the break-in at Cloud Tower. They really hadn't meant to get caught, just a simple find and retrieve mission. Stella needed that ring back or she would've for sure failed the rest of her finals, and no one wanted to see Stella have to repeat freshman year a third time.

Musa had to hold herself back from throwing out every cuss word she knew when Griselda had punished them to cleaning duty and told them they wouldn't be allowed to go to that Charmed Life concert with the rest of the students. She had been so pumped to see them, but instead had been stuck dusting the entire school, powerless and sweaty.

The boys had been a nice distraction however, and Musa had been a little more than excited to see Riven again. The girls had waited outside the school for the specialists to ride up after Stella had called and lied, explaining that they needed hero's 'assistance'. They all knew that was bullshit. And the fact that the guys had all deliberately made the choice to skip the concert to hang out with them, including Riven, gave Musa hope that he was coming to see her because he wanted to actually be around her.

They had arrived pretty quickly, and when Musa had spotted the magenta boy getting off his Levabike, she shot him another peace sign in reverence to the first time in the Alfea hallway. She was hopeful that since they'd had that small civil interaction in the woods he'd be a little less vicious with her then before.

And she couldn't help a small smile form forming when he nodded in her direction, acknowledging her. Even if it had been a small gesture, Musa had counted that as major progress. Riven might've been emotionally constipated, but in return she was stubborn as all hell. She wasn't going to give up on getting to know him that easily.

The night had gotten on pretty terribly, and Musa hadn't been shocked to find out that the witches had been so bold as to come straight to the school and try to start shit. Of course they would decide to attack while the girls were magickless and everyone else was gone. Those three girls were ruthless in their hunt for power.

If it hadn't been for the boys Musa couldn't imagine what might have happened. Even if it was hard to admit, they had been a great asset, but Riven's many comments of the girls not being able to help them fight had ticked her right off. Just because she didn't have her powers didn't mean she couldn't kick some ass.

And as the specialists rode off (Riven's attitude had only gotten worse as the night went on, pissing Musa off even more when he had decided to turn around and tell her and Flora they had thrown a shitty party), the witches were magicked away by Faragonda. Musa couldn't help but feel like the air had shifted to something sinister. Whatever was going on, those witches were plotting something that was bigger than just being power hungry and annoying.

Things had calmed down for the most part after that. So when Musa had been called into Faragondas office unprompted she was worried that she had broken a rule without even realizing it. She had been keeping her attitude in check these last few days, not wanting to get in any more trouble.

Faragonda's office was bright. Light cascaded through all of the large windows that ran along the walls, and the head of Alfea was seated at her desk, looking as poised as ever.

"Musa, dear, come in! I want to introduce you to someone."

Faragonda gestured to the small man standing next to her and smiled, "This is professor Saladin, head of Red Fountain, and he's here because he has a special task for you."

Musa knew of Saladin, but had never formally met the man. The first thing she noticed was that he was tiny, tinier than her from what she could tell. Which was both shocking and also a bit humorous. The head of the school for Meat Heads in Training was run by a man under five feet, and that made Musa snicker to herself. He looked like a nice enough man though.

Saladin made his way up to her, and took her hand in his own, patting it lightly, "Nice to meet you dear. Faragonda here tells me you are very gifted when it comes to music, and i've got a bit of a predicament over at Red Fountain that I think you might be able to help me with."

Musa raised a brow, "Whats up?"

Saladin chuckled at her informal response and continued, "We've got some new dragons over in the practice stables, and they seem to be causing even our most practiced wranglers a bit of trouble. We were hoping you'd be able to come and find a way to sooth them?"

Musa hummed, she had read about the soothing properties music could have on some types of dragons, and knew that it could calm them considerably, even lull them to sleep. Apparently they had a particular affinity for the flute.

"I mean sure? I've done some research about dragons and know a few lullabies I could try on them if you think that'd help."

Saladin clapped his hands together in approval, and beamed at her, "That's exactly what I was hoping for. Faragonda, can I please take her and the other two girls?"

Faragonda smiled and nodded, "Just bring them back before supper Saladin. Musa you're excused from you scheduled classes for the day." Musa mentally pumped a fist up in victory. Excited that she didn't have to go take that whack test in Magical History.

"And Saladin, keep my girls safe. I don't think any of them have ever dealt with a temperamental dragon before."

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Apparently the other two girls Saladin had spoken of were her two roommates, and Musa had been ecstatic when she spotted her two friends waiting on the Alfea quad, chatting exuberantly to one another.

Musa couldn't help but run up behind them and tackle them into a half hug, "Sup guys! Heard you also were retrieved to go soothe some dragons?"

Flora smiled warmly and nodded, "I'm going to help check on their overall health, and get the new ones up to date with vaccines and such." The flower fairy was studying mainly healing magick at Alfea, so that made sense.

"And I'm coming to give them all a great tan! Apparently dragons love to sunbathe. Whatever it takes to calm those beasts I guess. The specialists are apparently desperate." Stella explained, as spunky as ever. She was also probably excited for an excuse to go to Red Fountain. Musa was sure she'd hunt down her boyfriend regardless of what he was doing at the moment.

Saladin slowly caught up to the three chattering girls, and lifted his staff, "Ready ladies?"

The girls nodded, and the headmaster spoke in some language Musa didn't understand, and their bodies slowly started to evaporate, Red Fountain their new destination.

When Saladen had said they were having problems keeping the new dragons at bay, he had not been kidding. Stella and her were seated in the glass viewing box that looked directly over the practice stadium, and watched as a bunch of specialists tried to rope down a large blue dragon that was thrashing violently. Flora had been quickly whisked away by someone Musa assumed was one of the veterinarians to take care of the already tamed dragons. Which left the two other fairies to devise a plan with some of the specialists on how to go about soothing the newlings.

There were three new dragons all together, and Musa could see that the other two were barley being kept in check by the Red Fountain students as well. She also took note that Riven was one of the specialists down in the pit, his bright colored hair giving him away. He was in front of some purple dragon, hands raised, body tense and cautious.

"So what's the plan boys?" Stella was already in her Winx form and ready to go. Brandon and Sky had just so happened to be two of the specialists assigned to help the girls figure out a way to sedate the dragons without completely freaking them out. Apparently dragons loved a good fairy to munch on, and would go ballistic if they even got a whiff of one of them. So they were pre-planning in hopes to cause as minimal damage to both the girls and dragons as possible.

Brandon sounded a little lost as he spoke, "Well, we need to get the two of you close enough so your magick can actually have an effect, but also we need to keep you from being eaten, so were in a bit of a pickle."

Stella scrunched her nose at the eating comment, "I know I can cast my sun spells from in here and have them work just fine, but I think Musa is gonna have to get pretty close for any of her magick to be really worth a damn."

All of the specialists looked at each other anxiously, clearly not happy with what Stella had just said. It was the truth though. There was no way Musa was going to be able to get the dragons to hear her flute from here, not even with a sound amplifying spell.

Musa cocked a hip, "I think I'm just gonna have to go for it Brandon. There's no way with their sense of smell that they won't get a whiff of me before I can use my magic. So you're just going to have to warn the boys down there to prepare for the dragons reaction, and I'll be as quick as possible."

Brandon nodded, realizing there was really no other solution and turned to the younger boys, presumably freshman, "You heard her, go warn the other guys."

Musa could tell Brandon was tense. Things could go south very quickly and non of the boys had wings to help if the dragons decided they wanted an afternoon snack.

Brandon smiled thinly at her, "I trust you with this Musa, but please be smart. When you hit the air I need you to be on your a-game. I don't want you or my teammates to end up injured because of this."

Musa nodded, and quickly transformed into her Winx. She magicked her favorite flute into her right hand and quickly ran over the songs she knew would sooth the dragon's aggression note by note, mentally preparing herself.

Before she stepped out into the arena she heard Brandon call her name.

"And Musa?"

"Yeah?"

"If there's one fairy I know who can outfly a dragon, its you. But don't let it come to that."

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Riven was currently four inches away from a dragon, and having the time of his life. Cordatorta had told the boys that the new babies would be dropped off today, and that meant Riven was finally getting his own to dragon to wrangle and tame.

He had picked the purple Amphitere, who was the only female of the pack. He had chosen the name Ruby Rose for her, feeling it was fitting since when her scales hit sun they looked like rose petals shining in the light. Ruby was currently in the middle of flaring her nostrils at him as he softly cooed at her, and trying her best to escape the ropes that five specialists were holding her down with on either side of her wings.

A freshman, Luke, came out of one of the openings that led into the arena grounds and announced that some fairies were here to help with the taming of the new dragons, so to be cautious and keep the dragons contained.

Riven knew Saladin had gone to Alfea to get the help of pixies, and had mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand he could clearly see the other students were struggling to handle the new beasts, due to the fact that a lot of these freshman were really inexperienced when it came to dragon wrangling. And he also knew that certain types of magick could sooth a dragon right to sleep if done correctly, so it only made sense Saladin would recrute a few pixies to help with the job.

But he was also highly aware that when it came to food and dragons, fairies were high on their lists of favorite snacks to munch on if given the opportunity.

It was too late to object to the help however, as the feeling of the sun on his back suddenly get increasingly more prominent, indicated to him that the fairies were already here. They must've gotten some sun fairy (probably Stella) to come and turn up the heat for the new Hydras. They were notorious sunbathers, and loved to just roll around and bask. Riven could see through the blinding light that the two Hydras had instantly calmed, and were now just soaking up the daylight.

A few specialists were able to throw some cages over them, which meant step one for those two dragons were complete.

Ruby however was still trying to break free of her restrains, not really giving a shit about about the sudden temperature change.

Riven could instantly tell when the fairies had made contact with the open air, because Ruby has gone absolutely ballistic with carnal instinct. Her nostrils were wide open, and her eyes were frantically searching the air for the source of the fresh prey. She was pulling against her restraints with even more force than before now.

And as Riven heard the first note of a flute start to play, he also heard the snap of a rope directly come from his left, and felt his heart stop in his chest.

The next few seconds for him flowed like molasses. It only took one less rope holding her down for Ruby to get her wings open enough to throw the other specialists restraining her against the arena wall like a bunch of rag-dolls. Riven had been brought to the ground by the force of her wings beating, and he watched helplessly as she ascend into the sky, searching for her pray.

Riven surveyed the air frantically, and his eyes landed on an array of red leather and pigtails.

There was Musa, flute to lips, eyes closed, floating right in the middle of the stadium.

"Musa!" Riven roared, desperate to get her attention. Ruby Rose was heading right for her, teeth bared. Of course she would be the other fairy brought in to help. Music was one of the only things that could calm a dragon well enough to be able to get it to cooperate, and Musa was the best fit for the job.

Navy eyes snapped open at the call of her name, and he saw her blink once before realizing what was barreling towards her. She narrowly dodged Ruby biting her leg clean off, and Riven was just glad his dragon wasn't a breed that knew fire breathing, or she would've already been cooked and eaten midair.

Riven heard one of the seniors bark at the younger specialists to get all of the sedated and caged dragons out of the pit and evacuate.

"Riven! you need to move!" Sky was yelling at him from the seats that were right above his head that sat above the pit of the arena. He was right, Riven knew it was dangerous to stay in the battle grounds with a loose dragon, but he also knew that Musa needed help. She and Ruby were playing a game of chicken and beast, and the last thing Riven wanted to do was watch blood be shed on his watch.

Musa was bobbing and weaving like a pro. Ruby might've been big, but Musa had an advantage on her, and that was her petite size and speed. She was using the walls of the arena in her favor, and was moving herself like a bullet across the space. Evading Ruby as effortlessly as possible.

Riven tried his best to get to the attention of the music fairy, but she was going way to fast, "Musa! Stay in the arena! Don't fly out or she'll chase you until you run out of magick!"

Musa whizzed right past him, narrowly avoiding his shoulder. He made sure to duck out as Ruby flew over the both of them, neck outstretched and jaw wide open. If she flew out of the arena and into open sky, she could for sure kiss her wings goodbye. Musa might've been astonishingly fast, but Ruby was more persistent, and she would long run our of Winx before Ruby ran out of animalistic prey drive.

"I know! I'm highly fucking aware she's not going to stop until she eats me!"

The whole arena was in a stalemate. The other specialists and Riven couldn't do anything on the ground, and Musa was doing her best to doge Ruby and her attacks, but she would run out of magic eventually.

The game of hunt the fairy went on for a few more minutes, before Musa called his name, frantic, "Riven!"

She was currently dipping under Ruby's belly, trying to disorient the dragon.

"I need you to close all of the doors and the dome that goes over the arena!"

"What? Why?" He didn't know how trapping all three of them in here with Ruby as pissed as she was was going to fix this problem.

"Just do it! Trust me!"

He responded, frustrated, "Okay, just try not to hurt her!"

Riven could almost see her whole body eye roll, "Oh fuck off, just shut the damn doors!"

He ran over to where the indoor control panel was located and ignored her crude response. One had been installed in case of an emergency just like this one. If a specialist needed to quickly open or close a door they now had immediate access to the controls. He quickly pulled two levers, and all of the doors in the arena shut, as did the dome to the roof.

Musa quickly shifted herself, flying right up to the now closing dome roof. She had been able to fake out Ruby with enough grace to befuddle the dragon thoroughly. Ruby was now frantically looking around for Musa, and when she spotted her standing atop one of the roof beams, she charged with only carnage on her mind.

Riven feebly watched in horror as Ruby made a straightaway for the fairy, "What the hell are you doing Musa?!"

The dragon was a few inches from Musa when he sensed the whole stadium start to shake. He instantly felt his body become drowsy, and what sounded like a lullaby sung through his ears, immediately calming his mind and body. He could see Musa was glowing a light purple, and what looked to be sound waves were rolling off of her body and wings.

Ruby had been stopped mid air. She was now floating, gone limp from whatever spell Musa was currently casting on her. From his body's own reaction he had to assume it was some strong calming magick. Riven let out the breath he had been holding in since the rope had broke, and watched as she started to descend towards Ruby. He was shocked to see Musa get so close to the dragon, and was even more shocked when she put both her small hands on Ruby's muzzle, lightly connecting her forehead with the dragons.

She was whispering something to the dragon, but he couldn't hear whatever she was saying from the distance he was at. Ruby's eyes closed slowly, and she was now completely asleep mid air. Both of the girls started to float down to the ground, Musa clearly using her magic to keep Ruby from plummeting.

She had done it.

Some specialists made there way back into the arena, ready for Ruby to land so they could collect her and make sure she was okay and take her to a more secure location. The minute Ruby made contact with the gravel she curled into herself, her chest moving lightly with her small snores. It was the calmest Riven had seen her since she had been dropped off at Red Fountain, and it soothed him immensely to know she was safe.

A small part of him was also grateful that Musa was okay, too. She had flown a few feet from Ruby, and was seated criss cross on the ground and breathing heavily, collecting both herself and her magick.

Riven didn't want to admit to himself, but she had impressed him. He knew she could get a good hit in if lucky, but had no idea that she could think on her toes so fast in such a high risk situation. He could feel his admiration for her grow.

Ruby was being caged by two junior specialists as he made his way across the arena towards Musa. He made a mental note to go check up on her later, because right now he had another issue to attend to. Even if Musa wasn't physically hurt, he could tell that she had been exhausted from the amount of magick she had used and probably needed some help.

He approached her, and put a hand out for her to take, "You did good, Pixie. Not many fairies can say they fought a dragon and lived."

She tilted her head up at him from her spot on the ground, and looked both perturbed and smug, "Oh, nice to see you too mister, 'Don't hurt my dragon even though she's trying to eat you' what a lovely day were having, don't you think?"

She was angry with him, clearly. He sighed, "Come on Musa, I didn't mean it like that. Knowing you I was just worried you'd try and kill her without even thinking."

Pushing herself up and ignoring his helping hand, Musa crossed her arms and gave him a look that read, 'dude come on', and powered down. He tried his best to keep himself from staring at her. She was wearing a pair of baggy jeans that hung low on her hips and her underwear was clearly visible. And he for sure didn't think that was kinda hot.

"Your just lucky I didn't level this whole building. Because believe me I thought about it, but I'd feel bad if I ended up killing your pet."

Sarcasm aside, Riven could hear the sincerity in her voice. He didn't know what had gotten into him lately, but he could feel himself being drawn to this girl more and more as they interacted, and he tried to fight it the best he could. He hated himself for it, but he even thought her snappy remarks were a little cute, which was pathetic. Because when anyone else interacted with him, even with just a simple greeting, he wanted to tell them to fuck off.

"Well thanks, for calming her I mean. You really did kick ass."

Musa audibly gasped and put a hand over her heart, faking surprise, "A compliment? From the great Riven himself? I'm shocked. I thought you were only able to give battle advise and scold me on my fighting tactics."

Riven rolled his eyes, "Ha ha, very funny. Just learn to take a compliment pixie, I don't give them out very often."

She smirked and snarked a quick, "Clearly, asshole" and then started to move, "I'm going to go find Stella, she's probably with Brandon somewhere. Your more than welcome to come if you want."

It only took two steps before she was stumbling forward towards Riven, eyes rolling back into her head. He caught her with ease, wrapping an arm securely around her waist.

She came back to a second later, and steadied herself on him. Shakily she placed both her hands on his lower biceps in an attempt to hold some of her own weight, and used his chest as a resting place for her head. She was clearly having a hard time staying conscious. Riven noted she was breathing heavy once again and felt a pang of worry go through him.

"Musa?"

It took her a little bit to collect herself and respond, "I think I might have...overdone it a bit."

He snorted lightly, "You think?"

She rubbed her head into his chest, clearly a bit embarrassed. "I think I can't feel my legs."

They stayed like that for several moments, him just holding her up while she caught her breath. Riven really couldn't help but notice that everything about her was so small. He knew she was the shortest out of all the Winx girls, and probably one of the shortest fairies in Alfea too. Fairies were notorious for being above average in height, so she was an oddity.

He could tell however that she took every chance to make herself feel larger, and with her fiery personality and loud mouth she clearly wanted to come off as someone that stood tall. Not to mention she could fight like someone three times her size, which made it a little funny that she was so tiny in comparison to both her peers and adversaries.

"Well, what now?"

Riven heard mumbling come from below him, and could barely make out what the dark haired girl was saying against his chest,

"...Canyoujustcarrymepleaseidonthinkicanwalk."

He chuckled, amused and slightly confused, "You're going to have to repeat that for me pixie."

The grip on his arms became tighter as she tensed. Clearly whatever she was trying to say was taking her some effort to get out, "Can you just fucking carry me? I used too much of my magick with that final spell. My legs feel like jelly when I try to walk."

Riven knew that if a fairy used too much of her power in a short amount of time their bodies could start shutting down. It was a limitation that fairies had to be aware of in times of battle, but it seemed like Musa would push herself no matter if her body was screaming at her to slow down.

He hoisted her up in one swift movement, and hauled her over his right shoulder like a sack of flour. He heard a squeak come from behind him, and held back a smirk.

"Dude seriously, a fireman carry?"

He tightened his grip on her as he made his way towards the arena doors to go find where Stella was, making sure to avoid putting his hand anywhere that would get him a black eye.

"What? Did you expect me to sweep you off your feet or something? This is the easiest way to get someone from point A to B when in a hurry." Riven felt a fist hit the small of his back, and decided to pinched Musa on the upper leg as a form of playful retaliation.

"Ow fucker! Didn't this stupid hero school teach you to be nice to the people you are hero-ing?"

Riven pinched her again, and he was utterly shocked when he felt the pain of her biting him in the left shoulder. She had somehow maneuvered her head far enough to reach his other side and currently had her teeth sunk into his deltoid. This fucking girl.

He kept a hold of her, but jerked a little so she'd release her teeth from his flesh, "Did you just fucking bite me pixie?"

"Yeah," she wiggled a little bit in annoyance, "Just be happy I took a bite from your shoulder and not an asscheek. I've been making eye contact with these babies since i've been down here, so they're an easy target."

The only thing that stopped Riven from throwing her onto the ground and leaving her to fend for herself was Stella flying towards them in a haste of orange and blonde. Brandon and Sky were both following behind the fairy, and so were a few other Red Fountain Students.

"Musa!" The blonde screamed as she came to a halt in front of Riven, "Is she okay? Oh my god that was so terrifying, but also amazing!"

A small, "Thanks Stell" came from behind him, and he tried his best to keep himself calm around Stella and her large personality.

"She's fine. She just used too much magick and now her legs are useless. We were on our way to find you." He tried his best to sound level, and not like someone who had just been bitten by the screwball of a fairy he was gripping.

Stella smiled, and made a motion like she wanted him to transfer Musa over to her outstretched arms. He gave her a quizzical look and she gave one right back, "I can take her Riven. I told Saladin I would just transport us back once the job was done."

she made the grab motion again, and looked at him sincerely, "And since everyone is in one piece we have to get back to Alfea for dinner. Besides, my Musa here for sure needs an infirmary visit, and a hot bath with expensive soaps. A fairy needs her papering after almost being dragon food."

Riven just shrugged and didn't hear any protests from Musa, so he slugged her off and placed her body into Stellas arms. The blonde didn't even flinch at the additional human weight in her grip, and just beamed at Riven.

"Thanks Riv!" He ignored the stupid new nickname and watched as she gave a quick kiss to Brandons cheek. The Brunette smiled and returned the gesture.

Riven could barely keep his cool when he witnessed Stella throw Musa over her shoulder just like he had done a few minutes prior, and simultaneously throw her ring in the air and catch her staff in one swift motion. Musa yelled our every cuss word in the book at the other girl, but Stella ignored her enraged friend in favor of opening up a transport portal.

She patted Musa's butt playfully, and Riven swore he almost pissed himself laughing at the Blondes antics, "Well boys, nice to see you! Please send Flora back to the school once she's done helping the vet. Ta ta!"

Riven could admit that Stella was entertaining sometimes.

And as Stella turned to walk into the portal, Musa perked her head up and met his eyes. He saw her glare at him, but could tell there was no actual heat behind the gaze. She mouthed an, 'I hate you' in his direction and he couldn't help but let a small smirk form on his lips. He threw it back to her, and he watched as she evaporated back to Alfea, middle finger held high and a tongue stuck out at him as a final goodbye.

A hand clapped him on his shoulder, thankfully not the bitten one, and he turned to see Brandon to his right, eyebrows raised suggestively, "So, Musa huh?"

He shrugged the specialist off and started to walk towards the stables, knowing exactly what Brandon was insinuating. He needed to go check up on Ruby anyway.

"Go eat shit Brandon."

"Oh come on! You know you like her!"

Riven just threw up a finger behind himself as he walked away, mirroring a now classic Musa move. He had come to terms with the fact that he was starting to enjoy the bold fairy and all the playful banter they got into, but that wasn't any of Brandon's business.

Riven ignored whatever else Brandon was yelling at him, and just focused on getting to his dragon. He'd deal with his feelings later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh also I have no idea if Riven's dragon was actually named Ruby Rose in the show or i just read it in a fanfic and it seeped into my brain without me knowing. So if it is from a fanfic and yall know pls tell me!
> 
> Until next time!

**Author's Note:**

> *So I'm also an illustration student currently studying in art school, so I've been drawing the girls as I've been re-watching the show as well as writing lol. you can find my stuff on my instagram @bidiza_ or my tumblr @bbidiza , and Musa was the first one I redesigned so go check it out! I remade both her winx transformation and her everyday casual look!


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